FEN-BOT
by ninjawriter2
Summary: Only 65 are left after the invasion, put in hyper sleep until help comes. They are guarded by Fen, Tucker's greatest creation.He will continue to guard them until he is disabled, or until help comes. Batman sends the team and Red Tornado to investigate a dimensional anomaly, and they are sent to a destroyed earth inhabited by robotic spider lizards. They meet only one person. Fen.
1. Chapter 1

New story, yay! Watched FIW and had this idea. Hope you like it, please review. I obviously don't own young justice of danny phantom cause if I did I would be totally rich. (And I would have continued both shows.) Enjoy! Let me know of any grammatical errors and I will fix them.

Prologue  
The banging resounded through the hallway, blocking out all other sound. An eighteen year old boy ran away from the noise, blood dripping from four deep slashes in his arm. The most secret base on the planet, and they had still found it. Had to give these things credit for that.  
The boy reached the reinforced door at the end of the hall. "Voice activate, Tucker Foley!"  
"Recognized. Deactivating security." A female computer voice sounded. The many layers of the door began to grate open. As soon as the opening was large enough, Tucker squeezed through. "Manual override 3465! Lock down everything!"  
"Sequence in progress."  
Tucker didn't wait for the door to finish closing, jumping up and running to the computer. He tried to ignore the clanging of the aliens feet as he rapidly keyed codes into the computer. Elsewhere in the compound, things began to shift. Doors closed, lights went out, hidden cameras turned on for the first time.  
At last, Tucker was ready. He flipped open the glass casing, turned the key, and pressed the button. This is so cliche. He thought. Just one thing left to do, the last piece to the plan.  
The plan. It was a desperate, last resort plan. If there was any other way, Tucker would have taken it in a heartbeat. He glanced at the pods behind them, each containing a person in hyper sleep. The ages varied greatly, along with the race. All together they numbered about 65. They would be waiting there for decades, even centuries, waiting for another intelligent force to drive away the aliens and rescue them. Yes, it was a very desperate plan, with many flaws. But it was all they could hope for. The original had been simply to wait inside this sealed room. But after seeing the aliens himself, Tucker wanted to employ one last safety measure.  
He'd been working on this project for two years now. The Fen-bot, as he called it. Or Fen, as the robot itself preferred. After Danny died of cancer, Tucker had begun work on an alternate superhero, modeled after Danny. He hadn't been able to perfect it before the aliens came, and most of his time had been occupied making weapons to hold them off. But he had still been able to make a lot of improvements, even programming it a growing personality and mind. Thats when it had changed to he. Tucker hadn't perfected him yet, but he'd have to do.  
As he finished typing in the last code, Tucker slowly collapsed to the floor. He lay in a puddle of his own blood, feeling his life slowly fade. It was too bad he'd die now. He hadn't gotten an honest date to this day. "Oh well." He muttered. As he slipped into death, he whispered a poem he'd had grown fond of.  
"Do not go gentle into that good night,  
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;  
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."  
He heard a distant scraping outside the door.  
"Though wise men at their end know dark is right,  
Because their words had forked no lightning they  
Do not go gentle into that good night."  
The blood around him had begun to cool, and now the cold was seeping into him.  
"Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright  
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,  
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."  
The computer beeped quietly, waiting for its next command. One that would never come.  
"Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,  
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,  
Do not go gentle into that good night."  
Tucker continued to whisper, a single tear escaping his eye.  
"Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight  
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,  
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."  
He closed his eyes for the last time.  
"And you, my father, there on the sad height,  
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.  
Do not go gentle into that good night.  
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."  
The last echo of his words faded into nothing, and no longer hearing a voice, the computer shut down. With it went the lights, leaving only the bluish hue of the pods to illuminate Tucker's tomb.

-Line break-

Across town, in Tucker's home, a pair of robotic eyes opened. The camera-like eyes took a moment to focus on the electric blue words that scrawled across the top of his iris.  
New_Mission  
Fen got up and headed for the door, awaiting more instructions as he went.  
Keep_any_robotic_alien_lifeforms_away_from_the_safe_house. Wait_for_organic_sentient_lifeforms_to_come_and_free_the_people. Remove_personality_chip_to_avoid_depression,_loneliness,_and_pain. Plenty_of_spare_parts_in_the_lab_if_you_are_hurt. Goodbye_my_friend. ~TUCKER~  
Fen tried to make sense of the mission. It was clear enough what he was supposed to do, but he wasn't all that sure he could do it. Despite his original purpose, he had never actually fought before.  
He brushed those thoughts aside. His creator, Tucker, knew what he was doing. Even if his message implied that he was... dead. Fen retrieved a scalpel from a nearby table and, with great care, sliced a two inch cut at the base of his neck. A little bit of scarlet liquid dripped out as he carefully slid a pair of tweezers into the incision. With a bit of effort, he opened a tiny hatch in the metal crossbeam, extracting a tiny chip. Connected to the chip were three wires. Knowing full well that he would feel nothing once it was removed, Fen disconnected the wires.  
As soon as they were removed, he felt an unbearable sense of numbness come over him. It only lasted a split second as all his pain and emotions washed away into nothing. Calmly, he washed out the cut and stitched it up. After that was finished, he carefully cleaned the chip, placing it in an envelope and setting it gently on the desk. With that settled, the now emotionless Fen headed out toward the safe house. He had a mission to complete.


	2. whimper

**I need comfort. Just got wisdom teeth out. Repeat, need comfort. (And motivation to write. Lost all story progress when I-pod died.)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello again! New chapter, yay! I am feeling so much better. I have a new respect for ice cream and cheese cake. Enjoy and please review. I own nothing!**

The sky was gray. It was always gray nowadays. Gray with the smog left over from the Great War. Humanity had tried so desperately to win the war, but failed. Leaving him alone to guard the survivors. Sixty five survivors, asleep in their pods, completely oblivious to the struggle he went through each day to keep them safe. Well, each night. The aliens rarely came out during the day, because although the sun was not seen through the smog, its invisible rays still came through.

 _HOURS_OF_DAYLIGHT_LEFT:__ _.5_

Only half an hour left. He stood, his joints creaking from staying still so long. He shifted into battle mode, his skin hardening and shaping to create a silver armor with green highlights. His normally black hair turned white, and a green tinted visor slipped out of his hair line to cover his eyes and nose. He walked toward the building he guarded, activating his scanner to search for what he needed. Small red dots flitted around the corners of his visor. They were moving faster than normal today, he would need to hurry.

A blue light appeared on the screen to his left, indicating a power cell. He walked over and dug in the rubble, finding and storing the power cell on his belt. He checked his power supply.

 _POWER_87%_CAPACITY_

Enough for now. He frowned suddenly. Fen rarely frowned, unless in concentration. He had removed his emotions over thirteen years ago, and so he had almost forgotten how to frown. But this situation definitely called for such an expression. The little red dots that were the aliens were going toward one place, and it wasn't the building he was guarding. That in and of itself was strange. As far as he knew, these creatures only purpose was to kill every human on earth. Even stranger, they were heading toward a pulsing green light on his screen. As soon as they reached it, the small red pinpoints would disappear.

 _UNIDENTIFIED_ENERGY_SOURCE_INVESTIGATION_HIGHLY_SUGGESTED_

Fen thought for a moment, considering his options. He could investigate, but that would mean leaving the place he guarded completely open to an attack. No, even if this was some new threat, he couldn't leave.

A cluster of red dots headed for the west side. Fen narrowed his eyes and activated his rockets, putting the strange anomaly in the very left corner of his visor. He could investigate it later, right now it was time for his day to begin.

-Line break-

Robin sat very still, his eyes narrowed. He flashed back to Batman, recalling every detail.

" _We have just picked up a strange energy anomaly from the Sahara desert." Batman gestured toward the screen at a pulsing red light. "Analysis suggests that it is a dimensional anomaly. Nothing has come in so far, but we can't be sure nothing will. We want you to find what's causing this and put an end to it. Do not enter the other dimension, as you have no idea what is there." Batman gestured again and the screen changed, revealing the caretakers they had come to know so well. "Red Tornado and Black Canary will be accompanying you as a precaution. They will meet you there. Good luck."_

Robin's eyes narrowed even further. As a precaution, yeah right. There probably wasn't an anomaly, and this was just something to keep them busy. Robin curled his hand into a fist. No, Batman wouldn't do something like that. Still, it was hard not to feel like everyone was babying you in a situation like this. Seriously, they had gone on riskier missions before. None of the leaguers were ever whelmed anymore.

He could tell that the others felt the same way. Superboy was making no attempt to hide his anger, snorting and grumbling to himself. Artemis looked ready to kill something, though she was taking it out by pretending to sharpen her arrows. M'gann kept veering the ship accidentally and then apologizing, clearly not focused on what he was doing. Aqualad's face was as straight as ever, but he seemed more somber than normal. Kid flash was probably the most normal of them all, stuffing his face full of a chips and sending googly eyes at M'gann.

"We're landing!" M'gann announced, sounding a bit flustered. "Sorry about the rough ride, heh, lots on my mind." She said it cheerily enough, but you could tell she was nervous.

 _-Perspective change-_

M'gann felt nervous, so incredibly nervous she thought she might pop. If Black Canary and Red Tornado were accompanying them, there was no telling how dangerous it could be. They had never had league members accompany them before, and it scared her.

She snapped back to reality and straightened out the ship. "Sorry!" She said as happily as she could. Goodness, she had no idea that piloting the bio ship depended so much on emotion. Hello Megan, of course it did! Their minds were connected by- oops!

"Sorry!" She blurted again. She felt so embarrassed- embarrassed and nervous! Oh, thank goodness, they were here.

"We're here!" She said, trying to regain her composure. "Sorry about the rough ride, heh, lots on my mind." She gave her brightest smile, trying to show that she really was sorry about the ride.

"I don't see why they had to come." Superboy didn't beat around the bush. He looked out of the semi clear view port, huffing at the sight of the two heroes waiting for them.

"It was smart for them to come." Robin said, his face bearing such a resemblance to Batmans that M'gann did a double take. "There are a lot of unknowns here, and it's good to have heroes with more experience."

Superboy snorted and glared at the wall. "Whatever."

Artemis interrupted, looking a bit like a cat without its favorite toy. "Hate to break up the pouty party, but those two aren't going to wait forever." She headed for the door. Kid flash crinkled up his bag and followed, flashing them a toothy grin as he passed. Superboy made an animalistic sounding growl, and the rest of them followed.

Black Canary saw them first. "Glad you're here because we've got a problem."

M'gann made a small squeaking noise, but no one seemed to notice. Aqualad stepped forward. "What kind of problem, if I may ask?"

Red Tornado stepped forward, his voice leaving no room for misunderstanding. "We have scanned the anomaly, and determined that the source is not on our side. In order to stop this from spreading or letting other dimensional beings in, we need to go through ourselves."

"Easy!" Kid flash said nonchalantly, eliciting an eye roll from Artemis.

Black Canary shook her head. "It's not that simple. We can't just send you in. We have no idea what is on the other side. It could be an alternate timeline, an alien planet- we don't even know if there's oxygen."

Robin jumped into the conversation, his brow furrowed. "Why don't you send in a probe?"

"We sent in several when we first arrived." Black Canary looked at them all in turn. "None of them have sent back signals of any kind."

Red Tornado produced six silver gray suits, all equipped with oxygen masks. "The plan is simple. All of you will go into the rift and find the source of it. I will be accompanying you."

"Wait, what?" Superboy stepped forward, looking at both of the older heroes in turn. "Why is Red Tornado coming?"

Black Canary held up a calming hand. "Part of the plan. If something goes wrong he'll have a faster reaction time."

Superboy gave another huff, clearly unhappy. Kid flash stepped forward. "So where is this "anomaly"?" He folded his arms and made a big show of yawning. Artemis groaned and face palmed.

Black Canary pointed toward a large hill. "Just over that hill."

-Line break-

Fen crouched behind a wrecked car, listening as the aliens searched for him. He converted his arms into blasters and got ready.

An alien charged around the car, its mechanical jaw whirring as it snapped at him. Without flinching, Fen fired two blasts down the monsters throat. The thing squealed, collapsing dead to the ground with smoke pouring out of its mouth. He took no notice, instead sprinting toward the next piece of cover.

An alien leapt out of nowhere, pinning Fen to the ground and trying to skewer him on one of its twelve spear-like legs. Fen converted on of his blasters into a blade and stabbed upward through a chink in its armor. Hot yellow liquid spewed from the wound, hissing as tried to melt Fen's armor. The thing dropped dead, and Fen shoved the body off with a grunt of effort.

 _DAMMAGE__ _ASSESMENT_CRACKED_FRONTAL_LOBE_BROKEN_RIB_COLUMN _MALFUNCTIONING_RIGHT_WRIST_

Fen looked at his right arm. The wrist was broken, with pieces of jagged metal and sparking wires sticking out. Oil dripped from the fracture, and he quickly shut down power to that arm, not wanting to catch on fire. A drop of oil slid down his visor, testament to the head wound he had. He quickly scanned the area, trying to determine if he could go on with this type of injury.

Fen narrowed his eyes and rescanned, trying to determine if his system was malfunctioning. All the red dots seemed to be heading to an area just over the next hill. Fen flicked the side of his visor, thinking that it might be glitching. But the screen remained the same. Except-

Fen zoomed out and looked at the entire landscape, and found that the anomaly had moved closer. Just over the next hill as a matter of fact. Eyes narrowing, he switched the nature of his scanner. Dozens of yellow pinpricks appeared in clusters across the landscape. Fen hadn't smiled in thirteen years, but now he did. Never had a chance like this come up before. With every single alien away exploring this new energy, they had left their eggs completely unguarded. Fen wrapped his wrist with a spare cloth and set off toward the nearest cluster.

-Line break-

Kid flash smiled at M'gann. "This isn't what I thought I was doing with my weekend, but I'll take it."

Artemis scowled deeper. "It's Monday, genius!"

"I can dream!"

Red Tornadoes voice interrupted them. "Preparing for entry."

The banter stopped there, and everyone focused on the task at hand. M'gann made another squeaking noise, but no one heard. They all walked toward the rift as one. It was a slash of blue light close to the ground, slowly pulsing. As they got closer, the pull of it drew them closer and closer. Suddenly, M'gann cried out. The pull yanked her off her feet and toward the portal, and the others soon followed, their cries joining hers. There was a flash of light, and then they were gone.

-Dimensional gap-

Kid flash wasn't sure what he was expecting in the other dimension, but he wasn't expecting to come out falling from the sky. He gave a yell, then abruptly stopped as he was pulled to a halt.

M'gann grunted under the strain of holding five people. "Red Tornado! If you wouldn't mind, could you please help?"

Red Tornado quickly conjured a large tornado, and they all landed on the ground. Kid flash got up first, zipping to M'gann to help her up. Superboy sat up with another growl, and Artemis made a pretty good wolverine imitation.

Robin stood and brushed off his cape. "Well. That was unexpected."


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey everyone! *Friend growls and snaps at my hand* Hey, behave yourself! Ahem, anyway, here's the next chapter! I hope you guys like it, and please review. *Looks away, eyes widen* No, my brother isn't food! Spit him out right now, you naughty friend! *Growls and leaps at me* AHHHH!**

Fen fired his blaster at the pile of eggs, watching then explode in a mess of green goop. He knew that if he had had emotions, he would undoubtedly be grinning like a maniac. And he could have chosen to smile. But in a world like this, he couldn't afford to be distracted even for a second. Smiling was a distraction, an unnecessary display of happiness. He had already risked it once that day, he wasn't keen on doing it again.

 _SENTIENT_ORGANIC_LIFEFORMS_DETECTED_INVESTIGATION_SUGGESTED_

Fen couldn't believe it, just couldn't! His system must be glitching. He had sustained quite a head injury, and that was likely impeding his scanner. Why, after almost fourteen years of no other sentient organic beings, would six of them suddenly be just over the hill? It made no sense! His system had to be malfunctioning, there was no other explanation. But, even though it was almost certainly a malfunction, he had to be sure. Fen's face fell into an even deeper grimness. He would have to be fast. Who knew how long the aliens would be distracted? He needed to get this done and get back to egg blasting.

-Line break-

Flash popped to his feet, seemingly unaffected by the near death experience they had just gone through. "Well, that was interesting!"

Superboy growled. "I don't like this place."

"Um, guys?" Everyone looked up at Miss Martian.

She was pale and shaking, one hand pressed over her mouth. She pointed a trembling finger at the ground, looking like she might throw up any minute. About two feet from where she landed, a skeletons hand stuck out of the earth. It looked old, with dried out weeds growing over and through the fingers. Miss Martian started to fall over, but Superboy caught her. "I almost landed on it." She whispered.

Robin stepped in, trying to distract her. "Let's just… go to the top of the hill. Try and see if someone's causing this." Miss Martian nodded, trying to regain her composure as the group began to hike up the hill. But when they reached the top, everyone lost their composure.

The land before them was, for lack of a better word, desolate. Great metal skeletons were all that remained of what had been skyscrapers. The ground was hardly visible, just a sea of broken glass and graphite covered concrete chunks. Overturned vehicles were rusted husks, their windows shattered and their tires long since shredded. Trash and ashes blew through the air, and the sky was a solid cloudy gray. Plants had tried to grow back at one point, but all that was left of them was dried out remains.

The team looked at the carnage with shock, all of them at a loss for words as they viewed the destruction. Kid Flash finally managed to whisper, "What happened?"

"A nuclear war."

Robin jumped. He had forgotten that Red Tornado was there. The red robot was surveying the desolate landscape with the eye of a surgeon. "I am picking up trace amounts of leftover radiation, and the amount of destruction suggests war. This leads me to believe that there was a nuclear war."

Robin mentally kicked himself. He should have figured that out. But no, he had sat there and gawked like an idiot. He quickly pulled up his holographic scanner and searched the area, trying to find clues about the source of the dimensional rift. He frowned and rescanned, unsure of what he was seeing. "Guys, I'm getting something, but it's weird." Everyone crowded around, eager to focus on this new development instead of the destruction around them. "There's definitely something there, but I'm having a hard time picking it-"

A giant creature shot over the hill with a horrific screech, its cry mixing with the metallic clank of metal on metal. Robin had only a split second to observe it before it struck, but his mind instantly absorbed every detail of the awful creature.

It was about six feet tall from where he stood, with a metallic lizard body and a cobra like tail. It had six centipede like legs with on its bottom half, with six longer legs sticking out like oversized, remote control javelins. Its mouth was filled with multiple rows of jagged, spiraling teeth, and its buggy eyes were filled with multiple slit pupils. Yellow slime drippled from its open jaws, hissing as it splattered on the ground. The thing struck with the speed of a cobra, lashing out at the group of heroes with a bone chilling hiss.

Red Tornado leapt in front of the group and conjured a twister, sending the horrific thing crashing into an overturned bus. It picked itself up slowly, as if it thought it had no need to rush. It turned its head toward the sky and let out a high pitched keening, the spines on its back bristling as it screamed. Other piles of rubbish began to stir, and Robin didn't have to be an expert on these things to know that it had just called to reinforcements. The alien (Robin was beginning to think of it as an alien) turned back to them, rushing at them in a sudden burst of speed.

This time, the team was ready. Artemis fired a shocking arrow at it, and the thing collapsed on the ground, its legs twitching in the air. Another one immediately climbed over its dying comrade, and was joined by a second as it charged. Superboy easily intercepted them, crushing the head of one before throwing the other nearly one hundred feet across the wasteland.

Five more grouped together to take the team on, but suddenly, they all shied away from the group. After another moment, all of them scurried into the mess of wrecked vehicles and cinder blocks. Robin turned to see what they were running from, and was shocked by what he saw.

-Line break-

Fen looked at the group from his perch on one of the only standing trees left. They were a strange group, all wearing outfits of some sort. Fen got the indication that they were likely heroes. Their abnormal body signatures seemed to support this theory. The aliens had scurried away at the sight of him, and one of the heroes turned around and saw him.

But Fen wasn't focused on that, he was looking at the robot next to them. He wasn't sure what to do about it. His program clearly said to keep any robotic alien lifeforms away from the safehouse. This thing was clearly sentient, but he was a robot and was, by definition, an alien. So he would have to dispose of him.

A human with dark skin called something to him, but Fen couldn't hear anything. He squinted and tilted his head to the side, running a full systems diagnoses.

 _HEARING_OFFLINE_OPPROXIMATE_REALINMENT_TIME_TWO_MINUTES_

Fen opened his mouth respond, but shut it again when another message ran across his scanner.

 _SPEAKER_OFFLINE_OPPROXIMATE_REALIMEMENT_TIME_ONE_MINUTE_THIRTY_SECONDS_

Oh well, he'd just have to get this over with. He converted his one working blaster into a blade, and flew toward the robot as fast as he could.

-Line break-

"Guys, look." Robin pointed toward the young man in the tree. The team turned to look.

He had stark white hair and pale skin, with a pair of bright green eyes that showed bright even behind his visor. The boy had silver armor with pulsing green highlights, and black liquid was dripping from his head and wrist. He was observing them with cold indifference, like a police officer identifying a body at a car crash.

Aqualad stepped forward, trying to communicate with the kid. "Hello, friend. Do you know what happened here?"

The unnerving silence stretched on for what seemed like an eternity. The boy tilted his head to one side. He opened his mouth, then closed it again. Then, to everyone's shock, his arm shifted into a curved blade. With no change of expression or even a sound, the boy launched himself at Red Tornado. Before anyone could even move, Red Tornado lifted his hand and conjured a cyclone. But Red Tornado didn't count on the boy having rockets. He easily dodged the twister and crashed into Red Tornado, the blade slicing through his body with a peculiar metallic screech. The two pieces of Red Tornado thudded to the earth, and everyone's mouths dropped open.

Robin was the first to react. His hand shot toward his belt and pulled out a peculiar looking disk. He threw the disk at the boy, hitting him on the chest. The disk stuck like a magnet, and blue electricity suddenly sparked over his body. The boy teetered for a moment, then fell to the ground next to Red Tornado. As he landed, his armor melted into flesh and his hair turned dark black. Everyone stared for a moment, unsure of what to do now. Finally, Kid Flash said, "So we just… _glue_ him back together, or what?"

-Line break-

 _WARNING_SYSTEMS_FAILING_OVERLOAD_IMMINENT_

Fen lay on the ground, unable to move as the technology virus ran through his system. His own system was fighting it, but he was unable to move and fight the code destroying virus at the same time. He could see the group of people moving around and talking, but with all his systems currently offline, he had no way of knowing what they were doing. He decided to focus on his own problems. Desperately, Fen constructed a temporary firewall, and in one quick motion, stood up and ripped the disk off his chest. The virus immediately lost its aggressiveness, and his system destroyed it in less than two seconds.

But Fen knew there was still a problem. He was losing too much oil, and battling that virus had taken a lot out of his system. His retinal screen glitched out for a moment, and in that moment, something slammed into Fen and pinned him to ground. His vision realigned, and he saw a very angry looking boy in a black t-shirt had his hands around his neck. His vision began to blacken around the edges, and Fen felt that he would need air very soon.

 **No, NO! The sofa is not a chew toy! *Glances at you guys* What are you still doing here? It's over. *Reviewers glare* Well, too bad. You'll just have to wait like everyone else. *Reviewer starts shewing my arm* AAAAAH! Stop that! *Friend starts to chew other arm* Seriously!? You guys better review if your giving me this much trouble!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys, I have an important announcement. *Crowd anxiously leans forward* I am putting several of my stories on hiatus. *Shocked silence, followed by angry rumbling* Wait! Before you pull out the pitchforks, let me explain. I just started school again and am gonna be super busy. I need to take off some of the workload on my brain because I have to** ** _reread my own stories to get the details right!_** **For me, that's a big red flag. Plus, I'm getting pretty tired of only doing Danny Phantom. I am going to be publishing several stories for other fandom's in the near future. As for my current stories, I will split them up so you can just look at the one you're reading. (Because I'm too lazy to create a unique document for each story.) To be absolutely clear-** ** _I AM NOT GIVING UP ON ANY OF THESE STORIES*_**

 **Alone again** **: Since this is the first story I published, I feel the need to keep in going. Besides, my cliffhangers there are slightly less torturous, so my reviewers wait longer before trying to kill me. (I'm kidding. You guys have actually never rallied as an angry mob bent on my destruction. Thanks.)**

 **Justice is blind:** **This story is my most popular, so I'm going to keep in running. Also, the reviewers are the most aggressive mob-wise. *Starts stretching* What? You'd stretch too, if you were about to be chased by dozens of angry flame mobs.**

 **New:** **I love this story. It's a lot of fun to write, and I like it when I come up with an original concept that no one has thought of before. However, I am putting this one on hiatus. It's just not in my list of priorities right now. *Coughs awkwardly* Of course, this probably isn't the wisest thing to do considering the cliffhanger I left them on... *Goes back to stretching***

 **The Vampiric Foster Ghost Child** **: Wow. You guys really think I would put this on hiatus when it's dealing with** ** _abuse?_** **This story is going to continue.**

 **FEN-BOT** **: Yet another group that I left with an annoying cliffhanger. *Slips on Kevlar vest* Sorry, but I don't want to ruin this by trying to update too fast. There is enough on my brain as it is, and I know you guys like it. So, it's going on the shelf until I can finish a few of my other stories and/or get out of this gravity falls au mess that my mind has fallen into.**

 **Shady hero** **: I am dissatisfied with this story. It is undergoing a complete rewrite, which is gonna take awhile. So, in a way, this is also on hiatus.**

 **Lilac eyes** **: Have any of you even read this angsty, kind-of poetic au oneshot that I wrote? If not, review and tell me how I could have improved. (There are lots of ways. I consider this the worst thing I've ever written.)**

 **And that's the fate of all the stories you have come to love. Please review, and keep the flames to a minimum. Pretty please. *Takes off* Feel free to give chase, if it makes you feel better. YOU CAN'T CATCH ME- I'M INVINCIBLE! *Is chased by people carrying various weapons*AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Me:*Head thumps onto desk* Ugh...**

 **Friend: What is it now?**

 **Me: Do you know how hard it is to write an emotionless character?**

 **Friend: No.**

 **Me: It's hard! Fen is getting his emotions back next chapter, and that's final!**

 **Friend: I wasn't arguing with you-**

 **Me: SILENCE! Do not question my logic!**

Superboy held the teen to the ground, his mind clouded with rage. "Who are you? Why did you attack us!?"

"Unner hngg tyy btugggrh..."

Superboy looked at everyone. Kid flash shrugged. Superbly turned back to the teen. "What?"

"I need to breath..." The wheezy answer came. Superboy immediately loosened his grip, and the boy sucked in a deep breath. Robin decided to repeat Superboy's questions. "Who are you, and why did you attack us?"

Superboy took his hands off the teens throat, but kept them on his chest, just in case. The kid coughed a bit, then answered, "I did not attack you. I attacked the robot."

Robin, along with everyone else on the team, took a step back. His voice sounded like a cross between an answering machine and the twilight zone announcer. Completely monotone, with a hint of tinniness that made it seem slightly fake. Superboy, despite his shock, kept the boy pinned down.

Aqualad regained his composure. "The robot was Red Tornado, and a part of our team. By attacking him, you attacked all of us."

"I would have thought you would expect such behavior. Perhaps you were not informed of my programming."

Kid Flash chose that moment to be intelligent. "Huh?"

The kid cocked his head to one side. "Perhaps I am uninformed. Are you not a rescue team?"

Luckily, Aqualad was even more intelligent than Kid Flash. "We did not come here to rescue anyone, we came to discover the source of an anomaly."

"So there is an anomaly." The teen blinked twice. "I thought it was a glitch in my system."

"Huh?" Kid Flash again felt the need to express his intelligence.

"To continue this conversation would be very unadvis..." The boy trailed off, the color draining from his eyes, leaving the irises a dull gray. Superboy's eyes widened slightly, and he stood up with a slightly worried look on his face.

Before they could do anything more, another thing came screaming out of the wreckage. It slammed into Superboy and pinned him down, snapping at his face. Superboy grunted, just barely managing to hold it off with his arms. Slime dribbled from it's fangs, and Superboy could see its inner wires and gears churning as it attempted to get at him.

The robotic centipede-like monster abruptly disappeared, and Superboy sat up just in time to see Aqualad smash its head with a glowing mace. It twitched momentarily, then went limp.

Miss Martian rushed forward, helping Superboy to his feet. "Are you okay?"

He grunted, wiping slime off his face. "I'm fine." He growled, glaring at the creature.

"That thing came out of nowhere!" Kid Flash blurted.

"What do we do?" Miss Martian said, her eyes glowing as she attempted to scan the surrounding area.

Aqualad took charge. "We must find the source of the dimensional tear and get out of here."

Artemis drew an arrow and scanned among the wreckage, her eyes narrowed with concentration. "Look, someone just figure out a plan and do it, okay? Those things aren't cutting us any slack." As she spoke, she fired an explosive arrow at an alien attempting to approach. It screeched in pain and ran back into the wreckage.

"I've got an idea." They all turned to see Robin kneeling over the boy, pulling out his hacking cord.

"What are you doing?" Artemis demanded. "He's not a-"

"He's not human, I know that." Robin interrupted. He gestured to the boys arm, and Artemis could see the jagged pieces of metal sticking out. "That, and the fact that my virus worked on him, is why I think he's a robot. Plus, the way he talks-"

"Get to the point!" Superboy growled.

"Right, sorry." Robin plugged his cord into the teens visor and started hacking, gritting his teeth as he was denied access. "Come on-"

Kid flash zoomed over. "Rob, whatever you're doing, do it faster!"

"Got it!" Robin pulled up the map, looking over the marked places. "Okay, there's a place marked 'Safe house'!"

"Superboy, carry Red Tornado! I'll get the boy!" Aqualad yelled, sling into the boy over his shoulder. "Robin, lead the way!"

Luckily, the marked location wasn't far. The team ran through the jungle broken metal and glass, blasting and throwing monsters out of their way. Aqualad was having a hard time carrying the boy. He seemed to be at least twice as heavy as he should be, which would make sense if Robin's theory turned out to be correct.

"There!" Robin pointed.

In front of them was a squat, windowless building that seemed suspiciously free of graphite, although that didn't make it any less worn. It looked out of place in the destruction, although it was surprisingly well hidden in the slew of overturned cars and dead weeds. But despite its condition and location, it's design and was all too familiar.

"Government." Superboy growled, his fists clenching.

M'gann frowned. "How can you tell?"

"They're all the same." He grumbled, folding his arms.

"No time, come on!" Robin said, beginning to run again. The team followed, invigorated now that they saw they were nearly there. Until Kid flash made the mistake of looking back. His eyes widened, and he yelled, "Holy-", before promptly falling on his face. The team turned, and they all felt terror as they saw what had made him fall.

Coming at them in a wave of glistening metal were hundreds, maybe thousands of aliens. Their sharp legs glinted dully in the overcast moonlight, and Superboy cursed himself for not hearing their faint hissing. They were in the distance, but the gap was fast closing, with a few particularly speedy ones leading the way.

Robin started to run again, and the team followed, running faster than ever. Flash ran ahead, arriving at the building and banging on the door. It looked like the door to a safe, thick steel with a bunch of complicated gears and knobs, many of them coated in rust. KF grabbed the wheel and pushed with all his might, but his efforts couldn't budge it.

M'gann arrived and pushed as well, before backing up and trying to open it with her telekinesis. The door groaned, but still refused to open. Robin arrived and plugged into the door, desperately hacking through the defense systems. He could hear the things getting closer, their metallic roars sending shivers down his spine. A little sweat slid down his brow, and he bit his lip as yet another 'ACCESS DENIED' flashed across the screen. He desperately tried another approach, and almost shouted in relief as a green 'ACCESS GRANTED' showed itself. The door groaned and began to scrape open, nearly murdering Superboys ears as chunks of rusted metal screeched in protest.

As soon as there was a gap big enough, they all began to slip through. Robin was last, quickly calibrating the door to start closing before he followed. Or at least, tried to follow.

Robin was abruptly jerked backwards, choking as he was dragged away by his cape. He mentally cursed, all too familiar with the drawbacks in his costume. Luckily, he had grown prepared after several less than flattering instances of wardrobe malfunction. He pulled a baterang off his belt and sliced through his cape, barely managing to slip through the door before it ground shut. The door shut, sending the place into pitch black. Robin heard the scraping of metallic limbs against the door, and was grateful it was so thick.

"Robin, are you okay?" M'gann said in a whisper.

"Fine. Why are you whispering?"

"Because it's dark?"

At that moment, the team heard a mechanical whine, then a rhythmic thrumming. The team shielded their eyes as the room was suddenly flooded with light. Their eyes eventually adjusted, and they looked in confusion at the place before them.

"This is a safe house?" Artemis said incredulously.

Indeed, it was a sight for skepticism. The hallway was stark white, with large windows displaying trashed laboratories. The floor was stained various colors, probably from chemicals spilled long ago. The place looked more like a hospital than anything else.

"I don't get it." Robin said. He checked his hologram, reaffirming what he already knew. "It's labeled as a safe house, but there's no food, no weapons, no people."

"Maybe it's a different kind of safe house." M'gann said hesitantly, glancing around uncertainly.

Wally yawned, stretching. He leaned against the far wall and said in an bored tone. "Who cares? As long as those baddies stay out, I'll be-"

Whatever it was Wally would be, they never found out. The wall behind him seemingly disappeared, and he fell backward into empty space.

"Wally!" Artemis said before she could stop herself, rushing forward. Wally was laying on the floor, his eyes a bit crossed. "Are you alright?"

Despite himself, he grinned. "Right as rain." He said cheerily, reaching up for Artemis's hand. Artemis, who had at this point regained her usual callousness, made a point of ignoring it. "What's this?" She said, purposefully ignoring the fact that KF was still reaching for her hand.

"Another hallway." Robin stated. "Secret, by the looks of it." Having hacked the systems mainframe, he flicked on the lights.

If the skeleton when they landed had been a shock, the half rotted body less than five feet from KF's head was enough to give them all a heart attack. M'gann, to her credit, managed to keep from screaming. Artemis, on the other hand, let loose several unladylike phrases that Batman would have undoubtably raised an eyebrow at. Robin and Aqualad, trained in the art of emotional concealment, managed to keep from grimacing. Superboy grabbed onto the still shaken M'gann, causing a previously unheard noise to escape her.

"If you are all finished, I will explain the current situation." Robin automatically threw a disk at the voice. The boy, who had been standing in the doorway, stepped aside as it exploded. "That will attract more aliens." He dead panned.

"Who are you!?" Robin demanded, slightly miffed.

The boy's face twitched, and he blinked several times. "I am Fenbot, informerly Fen. Sole guard of this safe house and all that remains of earths AI system."

Robin frowned, mind racing to connect the pieces. "The... sole guard? What happened to everyone else?"

"Originally, there were not going to be guards." Fen walked past them, waving his uninjured hand in the air. A row of lights flicked on, showing long rows of frosty capsules and a tool covered work table. A computer filled the entire wall, but it's blank screen told them that it hadn't been functioning for a long time. Fen scooped several tools off the work table and began to working on his injured arm, picking out pieces mud and half dried oil. "Then my creator sent me new programming. I was to guard this safe house and the humans in it, keeping all robotic alien life forms away."

"Humans?" Robin said in surprise. "There are people here?"

"Can we talk to them?" M'gann asked hopefully. She would much rather speak to a person with a mind that she could actually read. Every time she tried to read this kids mind, she just saw was a bunch of static blobs.

"No." Fen said, quickly dashing their hopes. "They are in hyper sleep, unaware of anything around them."

"Well, let's wake them up!" Kid flash said, but Fen shook his head. "They are expecting to awaken away from this world. Seeing that they are still here will extinguish the last bit of hope they have." The boy twisted a small screwdriver in his arm, and a small piston popped out. Moving it aside, Fen went back to cleaning, pushing aside several wires in an attempt to reach further inside. Robin purposefully walked over and placed his hands on the table in front of Fen. Fen looked up, eyebrows slightly raised.

Robin sighed. "Look, I know you have to focus on fixing your arm, but could you please explain what happened here?"

Fen stared at him, his currently blue eyes unblinking. "You really do not know?"

"No." It was Aqualad who had spoken. "We came to this world through a dimensional rift. We have no idea what happened to make this world so..." He searched for an appropriate word, not sure how to address the worlds current state.

"Desolate." Fen said flatly. He set down the screwdriver and walked to the wall computer, pushing buttons and flipping switches in a complicated sequence that Robin subconsciously memorized. The screen remained blank for several seconds before it booted up, washing the surrounding area in bluish white light. He scrolled through the list of years, each year having a specific video. He found it eventually and stepped back, gesturing for Robin to take the controls. "Watch this." Fen instructed before returning to the work table, once again picking up the screw driver.

Robin stepped forward and pressed the play button. A man's face appeared on the screen, a black man with a red beret on his head. He looked tired, with dark bags under his eyes and sunken features. He began to speak, his voice clear and punctual. "My name is Tucker Foley. I am the lead robotics engineer of the United States and one of the few people left on the planet. If you are hearing this message, you have come to our world through a dimensional rift that I created. Please know that I did not do this with malevolent intentions, but only as a last resort should we be kept waiting for too long. Our planet has recently been invaded by aliens. We didn't understand their intentions at first, and we were suspicious. That's probably what saved us. We refused their gifts and bribes, and so they attacked." There was a sudden crash in the recorded room, and the man, Tucker, looked frantically around. A muffled apology could be heard, and Tucker relaxed. He cleared his throat and continued, his voice a bit more shaky then before. "They destroyed most of the planet. We fought as best we could, but even with all our nuclear weapons, nearly all of earths population was wiped out. Then they left behind a breed of their monsters to finish off any stragglers. The Kumars. If your listening to this message, you've probably already run into them. Since you're here, I must ask you to please save what's left of earth. We have put 65 people from all over the world in hyper sleep. All went voluntarily. Their pods can be unplugged and carried through your rift. Thank you, and good luck."

Robin stared at the computer. "Well, that was... informative."

"Unfortunately, getting them out will not be as simple as Tucker put it." Fen pulled out a needle and thread and began to sew up his arm, oblivious to the amount of jaws that dropped as he did.

"Dude!" Kid Flash exclaimed. "Doesn't that hurt!?"

"No." Fen said without looking up. "I removed my emotions long ago. I don't feel pain."

"What do you mean?" Artemis decided it was time she joined the conversation. "Why can't we just carry them out?" She demanded. "As long as we're careful, we can avoid these Kumars!"

But Fen shook his head. He lifted up his now sown up arm and flexed the hand experimentally. Not the best stitching job ever, but would do until he could heal it later when he had more energy. "You have attracted too many Kumars. They will be inside in a few minutes."

Artemis thought back to the sea of metal bodies surging toward them, and conceited the point. "Okay, fine. You got a better idea?"

"Yes. There is a ray that can temporarily disable the Kumars within a one mile radius. It will take the last bit of power that the back up generator has, and they will only stay immobile for ten minutes, so we would need to move quickly."

Artemis's expression was completely deadpan, and KF was making odd snorting noises, likely due to her predicament. Robin took over. "How come you never used this "ray" before?"

"It will permanently drain this safe house of power, leaving every defensive measure null and void. Even with me defending it, they would gain entry in a matter of days." Fen began to flip moe switches, preparing for what was to come next.

Robin sighed. "Okay, let's get this done." He stepped forward and pressed the button.

There was an almost imperceptible change in the air, and Robin felt himself subconsciously lift his guard. He noticed that the others were doing the same. He walked over to one of the pods, scraping the frost away to see the face of the person inside. Mouth set in a form line, he growled, "Let's do this."

-Line break-

It was going rather well. Better than could be expected of a slapdash plan like this one.

 _CHANCES_OF_SUCCESS_:100_OUT_OF_500_

Yes, they were rather well off, all things considered. The Kumars would be still for another two minutes, enough time to transport the last pod to the rift. It was time to execute his own plan.

The teens carrying the last pod passed him, and Fen stared after them. The one in red frowned and looked back. "You coming?"

"Momentarily." He said, and the pair of brightly dressed youth continued walking. As soon as they were over the next hill, Fen activated his rockets and zoomed across the city, whatever few burned out buildings remained of it, anyway. He located Tucker's house easily, checking in his visor to see the two light blue dots disappear through the rift. He set his teeth and plunged toward Tucker's house. He landed on the ground, his boots crunching on broken glass as he approached the cellar. He pulled the handle, barely surprised when the handle came off in his hand. Tossing the now useless piece of metal aside, he worked his fingers underneath the metal sheet, prying it up with a metallic shriek. Ignoring the slight explosion of rust, Fen descended.

The lab had been trashed, tools and chemicals spilled everywhere. A Kumar had obviously broken in trying to find food. This was further proved when he noticed the shredded tin cans on the floor. He flipped on his scanner, rummaging through a pile of debris in search of what he needed. A tiny square became visible on his screen, and he stood and walked to the corner of the room. There it was, lying among the remnants of a broken bottle. The contents of said bottle had long since dried out, leaving the envelope stained brown. Fen picked up the stained envelope and stuffed it in his pocket. One objective fulfilled. Now to the second, and most likely more complicated bit.

How to shut the rift.

Fen wasn't sure that there was a way to shut it. Opening a portal to another dimension had only been theoretical in the science community, and for good reason. The possible repercussions of such an act could be disastrous, and it had been stated multiple times that no one in their right mind would even try. Of course, Tucker had never been accused of being in his "right mind". Especially in the months since the invasion. Fen would have been the first to admit that Tucker hadn't been particularly stable in those months. In his state of mind, ripping through the dimensions would seem completely logical. Still, Tucker wasn't stupid. He would have provided _some_ way to close it.

Fen began to comb the area, searching for some clue about the current problem. He eventually found something better- Tucker's journal.

He flipped through the pages, quickly finding where the entries ended. Going backwards was probably his best bet. His eyes scanned the pages, taking in the information and quickly discarding it.

 _WARNING:_BIOLOGICAL_LIFEFORM_DETECTED_

"What are you doing? Don't we have to leave?"

"Looking for clues." He stated. He flipped back several more entries, quickly dismissing them. He came to a rough sketch and stopped, eyes riveted on it.

Without hesitation, he knelt on the floor, brushing away years of built up grime and debris. A pair of gloved hands helped him, and they soon uncovered what looked like a door welded shut. Fen switched his hand to a blaster, refocusing it into a narrow beam. "Close your eyes." He commanded. He waited until the red clad figure complied, then began to cut the door open. It clanged open and he reached inside, pulling out a handful of wires. He looked at the male beside him. "When I cut these wires, the rift will close. We will have approximately 30 seconds to reach it before that happens. You should leave now."

But the teen shook his head. "I can get us there under thirty seconds."

Fen narrowed his eyes. He scanned the face, but detected no signs of deceit. Other than an abnormally fast heartbeat, he seemed completely sure that he could do as he said. "Very well then." He said slowly. "Be ready." Shifting his hand to a knife, he sliced through the wires with one deft swipe.

Immediately, Fen found himself being swept through the air. His first reaction was to attack, but he stopped as he took a freeze frame of below him. The boy seemed to be... running? But to run at the speed they were going could easily kill someone. He tried to calculate how it was possible.

 _ERROR:_UNABLE_TO_COMPLY_

Fen frowned and tried again.

 _ERROR:_UNABLE_TO_COMPLY_

 _WARNING:_SYSTEMS_FAILING__

And for the second time that day, Fen's vision went dark.


End file.
